A 20-year study of 31 artists as students and as professionals reveals that skills in finding and formulating problems are significantly related to creative achievement. Accordingly, educators should turn their attention to teaching such skills. (MCG)

Schools can promote creative thinking by focusing on aesthetics, purpose, mobility, objectivity, and intrinsic motivation and by encouraging students to work at the edge of their competence. All elements of knowledge can be presented as the products of design, involving purpose, structure, model cases, and arguments. (TE)

Eliciting creativity in every student in the classroom can be a realistic goal for classroom teachers. Teaching creatively can include: embracing a student-centered learning approach; using thematic approaches to content area subjects, which also promotes motivation; using a cooperative learning group process; and utilizing creative arts.…

Identifies four characteristics of the creative endeavor: (1) musical imagination; (2) model of the creative process; (3) measures of creative aptitude; and (4) the observation of creative behavior. Examines the role of technology in creativity, and contends that creative thinking can be measured. Includes suggested readings. (RW)

Argues that the cognitive mechanisms in human creativity are, for the most part, sighted rather than blind. Reviews attempts to apply evolutionary ideas to psychology and argues that these ideas do not apply to the psychology of human creativity. An alternative sighted-variation framework is then proposed. (Author/CR)

Discusses motivation for writing young adult horror books. Gives examples of where and how the author gets ideas. Illustrates several suggestions for classroom application. Suggests paying special attention to puns and other wordplays that flit through the mind. Suggests writing a random list of words and phrases given by brainstorming students…

A study investigated whether it would be possible to increase creative output of 43 eight-graders by teaching a portion of the Future Problem Solving (FPS) process, the identification of problems, as part of a middle school curriculum. Results indicated that fluency and flexibility could be taught utilizing the FPS process. (Author/CR)

This study compared the creative thinking areas of flexibility and fluency of fifth grade Japanese and American children. A new instrument for cross-cultural settings, consisting of ten flexibility items and six fluency items, was constructed and administered to fifth graders. The results indicated that there were no differences in fluency between…

A theory of teaching creative writing that involves preconscious learning is presented in this paper. Following a review of the literature on methods of developing writing ability, the paper describes a three-step creative process of preparation (the gathering and study of appropriate materials), incubation (the preconscious absorption and shaping…

Creativity can be considered a function of knowledge, imagination, and evaluation and usually programed instruction is thought to be detrimental to creative behavior since the material is highly structured and the responses are usually restricted. However, this need not be so, for one seed of creativity, student control, is inherent in programed…

The author reviews the research conducted on dyadic interaction and its role in the development of creative thinking and problem solving. Earlier research has shown that children at a certain stage prefer to work alone rather than with other children. However, empirical data have shown on the whole that dyadic interactions result in better…

This paper discusses techniques and resources to use to stimulate creativity through a web site for several "generations" of gifted and talented learners. To organize a web site to stimulate creativity, two categories of development issues must be considered: intrinsic person variables, and process variables such as thinking skills,…

This article attempts to outline five major areas of components, selected by virtue of the attention paid them in recent writings, which could provide the content for various combinations of art activities. (Author)

Creativity is largely an outgrowth of attitude rather than an activity, a set of predispositions rather than a production line. Author traces the concept of creative development and the role music plays in illustrating the creative process. (Author/RK)